Tag Archives: ordinance

A New Jersey democrat is using her political muscle to force citizens across the state to register their bicycles with the Division of Motor Vehicles. The ridiculous maneuver would help the state offset its $10 billion budget deficit by enforcing a $10 per license plate fee and fines up to $100 for those, including children, caught riding unregistered bikes.

Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (D-Essex) said balancing the state’s budget isn’t her motivation for the outlandish proposal; it’s protecting senior citizens from getting run over by kids on bikes.

Affixing license plates to every bicycle in the state would help these vulnerable senior citizens identify and rattle off the license plate numbers from the kids’ bikes to the police, ensuring the rascals are brought to justice, says Tucker.

Tucker’s proposal has been met with opposition by a diverse group of interests including bicyclists, environmentalists, business owners and even her own colleagues in the State House.

“That’s an outrage, for sure,” said Paige Hiemier, vice-president of the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition. “Basically, it’s outrageous for a number of reasons, and most of them are: Who is the legislation aimed at? Who’s going to administer it? How are they going to pay for it? Who’s going to stop the bicyclists and check their registration?”

Do we really need a law telling motorists they can't pet their dogs while driving? Nanny state bureaucrats in Troy, Mich., think so ...

One city’s efforts to ensure motorists stay focused on the road ahead seems like a bit of overkill, but we’ll let you be the judge:

Bagel-chomping motorists prone to texting while driving beware: Police in a Detroit suburb have officially begun looking for you.

Troy police began enforcing the city’s new driving while distracted ordinance, which went into effect Saturday.

The ordinance passed last year in the city about 15 miles north of Detroit aims to crack down on distracted drivers whose bad behind-the-wheel behavior includes using a cell phone, eating, grooming and interacting with pets. Motorists face fines from $75 to $200.

The newly enacted law targets motorists for fines if they “temporarily remove both hands from the full grip of the wheel.” While lighting and smoking cigarettes is not specifically cited in the law as a violation, “[v]irtually any activity could be included at the discretion of an officer,” writes the Detroit Examiner’s Richard Weaver.

Read the tagline. It's not just a catchy slogan; it's how bureaucrats like Greg Mertzig think of themselves.

A nanny state bureaucrat in Superior, Wisc. is equating the lure of Happy Meal toys to candy cigarettes, claiming both types of novelty items encourage “lethal habits” that need to be controlled “at a very young age.”

“It was a marketing tactic by the tobacco industry to get kids to think it was cool to smoke at a very young age, develop these lethal habits at a very young age,” says City Councilor Greg Mertzig. “To a lesser extent, these toys in their Happy Meals kind of do the same thing. They reward kids and get them to think that it’s the okay thing to do at a very young age.”

Mertzig, an Iraq and Afghanistan war vet, told Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) that he’s firing at will upon fast food restaurants that, he says, are making America’s future soldiers too fat to fight. And, he claims his constituents support his efforts to determine how and what parents feed their own children:

“They don’t meet the physical requirements to join the military so there was an argument that it was actually a national security issue. And so through the dialogue with my constituents we decided and I decided that day that we needed to do something.”

Mertzig’s proposed ordinance would “ban free toys in meals with more than 600 calories, 10% fat and can’t have any trans fat. It could also require fruits or vegetables and whole grain foods,” reports WPR’s Mike Simonson.

The Happy Meal toy ban will be offered to the city council on Dec. 7. If Mertzig musters enough support, it will be voted on by the the council members at a later date.

Selling a home isn't as easy as it used to be, thanks to a big government scheme that punishes sellers before they even put 'For Sale' signs on their front lawns.

Times are tough for homeowners seeking to cut their losses and move on to a new home, and greedy bureaucrats in some cash-strapped municipalities are trying to cash-in before sellers move out. Increasingly, local governments are mandating that sellers submit to pre-sale residential home inspections that bureaucrats in at least one city readily admit “are not for the benefit of buyer or seller.”

On its website, Steward notes, the City of Richfield states “inspections are not for the benefit of buyer or seller, but are a community effort to maintain the quality of Richfield’s houses and neighborhoods.” Homeowners intending to list their homes as ‘handyman specials’ will be shocked to learn that code violations cited by Richfield inspectors include “bare wood, peeling paint, missing or deteriorated window glazing, and clogged gutters,” forcing sellers to invest in repairs they’d otherwise leave as-is.

Homeowners in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park who take their homes off the market or find their homes are not attracting buyers are still obligated by city law to correct code violations. City officials remain intent on citing homeowners who are staying put with “property deficiencies” that must be remedied immediately.

The city’s “Point of Sale Inspection Program” webpage explains, “This program is designed as a public service to help maintain property within the City of Brooklyn Park.” So if you’re planning on selling a home in Brooklyn Park, make sure you’re going to follow through with the sale or at least have money in the bank to make repairs if you reconsider.

Brooklyn Park Community Development Director Robert Schreier doesn’t seem to grasp the concept that unless they’re new construction, homes are ‘used’ and often require minor to extensive repairs by buyers upon purchase. Some homebuyers purchase ‘handyman specials’ because of the great deals on fixer-upper homes being sold at a fraction of the cost of neighboring homes, which for many, is an incentive — not a disincentive — to buy these homes that stand to fail absurd pre-sale city inspections.

Despite this logic, Schreier says the pre-sale inspections are “providing a service to the community. We never hear complaints from people buying the houses. The people that are moving in are glad for the inspections.” Note that he has no concern for the seller and the inconvenience posed by pre-sale inspection requirements. And, that’s because without the mandatory inspections, his city won’t pull-in free money generated by this revenue-generating scheme.

“I don’t think it’s accurate if you want to talk about too much government,” Schreier added with regards to the insinuation that Brooklyn Park is butting its nose in a place it doesn’t belong.

Ever heard of local governments pulling this stunt outside of Minnesota or in your neck of the woods? Help us shed light on greedy bureaucrats who are exploiting homeowners already struggling to sell their homes in our lousy economy.